But to be mega-pedantic, the company name is styled in lowercase as "smart". But, just to be awkward their performance partner is called BRABUS.. in uppercase. I used to have a "smart roadster BRABUS" which is an ungainly mix of upper and lowercase..

that "smart" will be the adjective of this decade the way "on demand", "extreme" and "turbo" were misused in previous decade.

Try this same quote with other brand/company names, and it really doesn't make sense. Smart makes small cars in France and this is just some new cars they are trying out. I've seen the all electric smart, and if it didn't cost around $34,000 I might be interested. When I checked the one out that was at the dealer I found that when you buy it you get to set up a plug in power setup for it and your residence. It is a decent idea except that people that are renting wouldn't be able to do that.
Anyway, I've got

Well, as long as they don't misuse "turbo" as they did three decades ago. I mean, depressing the "turbo" button let the CPU run at full speed, but not running in "turbo" mode was actually artificially underclothing the machine. It should have been called a "Slow Switch", not a "Tubo Button."

Well, as long as they don't misuse "turbo" as they did three decades ago. I mean, depressing the "turbo" button let the CPU run at full speed, but not running in "turbo" mode was actually artificially underclothing the machine. It should have been called a "Slow Switch", not a "Tubo Button."

You are ignoring that running at "normal" speed was the only way of letting you run DOS programs who relied on the PC being clocked like an IBM AT. and became unusable on anything faster. The Turbo mode was only intended for programs that weren't as brain damaged.

because I have yet to see anything smart about pay nearly a hundred a month to use a cell phone that happens to connect to the net. So the word Smart in automotive brings to mind on their abysmal little car.

They will definitely need something other than Smart... because I doubt you can ever disassociate it from the existing car.

As for these battery only solutions, not going to work. Not until they can be charged without actually having to lift a finger, like pulling into a parking space and having a charge

Looks like the Euro people are the ones without humor. If Chevy made a car saying "American know-how, German nothing", they would be yelled at on dailykos, truthout, and every single rag that isn't Fox Noise.

The problem is that even though Europeans tend to call Americans provincial, they don't realize that a vehicle that is great on the streets of Paris is not going to work in the US in most areas. The electric cars with the 70 mile range are great for European cities, but in the US, not so much.

In European city cores, you can take your kids and family, and at worst if you are dressed as an obnoxious foreigner, you might encounter a pickpocket. In England, maybe an obnoxious drunk.
Well, maybe, unless you're murdered
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-16334214
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7777635.stm
http://www.standard.net/stories/2012/01/04/men-sentenced-uk-black-teens-murder-infamous-case

Shit he was at the airport when I got there! Tried to just avoid him like everyone else until the true horror of the situation revealed itself. That wilted missive in his hand......it had my name on it!

Well pardner, we drive MILES in this country. I reckon they're about twice as big as your sissy little kilomawhosits. When you're driving for miles you need something bigger in the tank like GALLONS. Yee-HAW!

Just a guess really, but engines in the US, fuel economy has gone way up. Safety features = weight = lower milage. Polution controls = wieght = lower milage. Just a guess by folks that talk around the campfire.

Yeah, because Germany (home to the autobahn) doesn't have safety features or emissions regulations.

The truth is that Americans want (not need) horsepower. So while the VW Golf may get 65MPG in England on the smallest engine, they only bring the largest engine to the states. Somehow people have been convinced by detroit that they need 300 HP for a 4 person sedan to get groceries.

My 90 HP TDI gets around just fine and I have no issues on the highway but I despite getting the "Can you take that out on the high

I can understand why you'd put ideological media like MSNBC on that list, but NPR... seriously? How is NPR "even worse" than Fox? The average NPR listener scores the highest on being able to correctly answer factual questions about world events (such as "have the opposition groups protesting in Egypt been successful in bringing down the regime there?"). FYI, Fox viewers not only scored lowest on such factual questions, they scored LOWER than those who don't watch news at all! (To be fair, MSNBC viewers

I looked into these when buying a car several years ago, and was underwhelmed by both their price and their fuel efficiency. Looking at their specs again, they have gotten a little more competitive, but when you can get a much more versatile economy car such as a Toyota Yaris or a Hyundai Accent for similar price and gas mileage why would anyone I want to buy a Smart car?

Was curious about this myself. My Corolla get's 34mpg highway which is 99% of my driving. There is no incentive be it green or financial to own a hybrid/electric. For me though, a car is a car is a car. I do not use it as a status symbol. Folks that do use thier cars as a status symbol may see it different.

I really wish they'd bring back the Smart Roadster [wikipedia.org]. Maybe even as an electric car. That thing should be really fun to drive. Of course by now I need three seats in the car at least, so even if they would restart production it wouldn't make sense for me anymore.

As for why anyone would buy the standard models: they are meant to be city cars and really easy to park. The low mileage is a US "feature" - the US version has a more performance-oriented transmission etc, so the mileage comes out pretty low. The EU

We have owned a smart since the current 451 model was introduced to the US (2008).

We have been getting 37-38 mpg driving in city conditions. And I am a "spirited" driver that steps on the accelerator too quickly. I haven't checked the highway fuel economy.

Why buy a smart fortwo? The city fuel economy is pretty good (it has had the best EPA fuel economy numbers for a gasoline (non-hybrid) car). It is small and easy to park. It is fun. It has a short wheelbase and RWD and is light (though its strong

I own a smart and I found an unexpected advantage one day after 2 - 3 inch hail came thundering down when I was staying at a small apartment where I did not have a garage. The plastic body of the smart car took zero damage from the hail, and because I also have a Cabriolet, (the soft top convertible), the roof was spared as well. I did get a two dents, one on each side, on my side rails, but these are replaceable units (you take them off anyway if you want the full top down experience).